Collapsible automobile top



July 31, W23.

- J. BOTELLA COLLAPSIBLE AUTOMOBILE TOP 2 Shoots-Sheet ,1

File? March 8, 1922 Fig.1

July 31, 1923. 1,463,193

J. BOTELLA CQLLAPSIBLE AUTOMOBILE TQP Filed March 8. 1922 I zSheets-Sheet 2 Z lzweml ia se or PARIS, FRANCE.

COLLAPSIBLE AUTOMOBILE TOP...

pplication filed March 8, 1922. Serial Hal-542,092. I

To all whom it may cohcern:

Be it known thatl, JAo Uns' VBOTELLA,

a citizen of the French Republic, residing at 3 RueGeorges Ville, Paris,France have invented new and useful Improvements in CollapsibleAutomobile Tops, of which the following is the specification. I

- All the carriage bodies with hoods for motor cars of the cabriolet,landaulet, torpedo cabriolet-type, are provided with hoods which folddown on the elbow rests of the rear seat in various ways, formprojections more orless unsightly in the line of the car and presentingthe serious inconvenience ofoiiering a .great resistance to the air bythe surface f the hood which extends beyond the back of the car.

' This invention has for its object a hood whichpfolding down outsidethe elbow rests and back of the car, allows a motor cabriolet tobetransformed into an open torpedo hav- .ing absolutely sportive lines,offering the "max mum-of elegance and the minimum of :resistanceto the.311.

This hood is characterlzed in that the uprights supporting the hoopsmove away from the elbow rests when they are folded down, coming, as nan ordinary torpedo,

outside and below" the level of the elbow rests, clearing entirely the,latter and the back of the car. This operation can be obtained bypulling the uprights outwardly,

these latter being mounted in a slide, or automaticallv by means of twohelical inclines acting atv the central points of rotation, or

by any other mechanical device. r A form of construction of a hood 1naccordance with the present invention is illustrated byway of example inthe accompanying drawing in which: I

Fig. 1 is. a perspective view showing the whole of the skeleton work oithe hood in service position (cabriolet). Fig. 2 is a view showing workput down (torpedo).

this skeleton Fig; 3 is apartial plan view showing the. position of theuprights and hoops of the vhood when brought down.

Fig. sis a perspective down,.as well, a s the covering-of the doorglasses. u

-Fig. 5 1s a vertical sectlon. on an enlarged.

view showing the uprights guiding the front glass and the, ,bIlClgQcovering-nits housing -half folded folding down or rotary movement, thepi-vo'tal axis of the hood. p The links 1 which are secured to the uprights of the hood are mounted on an axis 2 capable of rotating in abearingS secured between the thickness of the side walls and the liningof the carriage body, a little way below the elbow rests against theupright of the door. This axis 2 is so arrangedthat it can be, subjectedto a translation accord: ing' to its axis, outwardly. to the car whenthe uprights secured to the links l are brought down,'that is to saywhen it is desired to fold down the hood foropening the car.

. By way of example,,this double movement it. srar earwr were.

aeceuns BOTELLA,

of rotation and, of translation of the'axes 2 is realized in thefollowing manner;

The axis 2 carries a cylindrical key 4 at right angles to its axis whichcan rnov'ein four corresponding helical grooves provided, tw in thebearings 3, two in a concentric wall of a sheet-iron cylinder 3? securedin the side-wall oi? the carriage bod-y.

lVhen the link 1 rotates in the direction of thearrcw (Fig. 1) the aXis2slides in its bearing, moving away from the longitudr nal axis of thecar. It takes back its initial position when the link '1 isbrought-again forwardly so that the hood upright 1Q which it conducts,isvertical. This upright 10 is broken at its upper part by'a hinge 11. IBy means of this arrangement, the skeleton .work of the hood coveredwith leather in the known manner, can be folded and ar-- rangedoutwardly and below 'the elbow rests, as shown-in Fig. 2.

The hoop ,6 holding thej leather accordspacing apartmovement of theuprights 10" during the lowering operation. Moreover, the arms of thishoop are broken at the point 15 by horizontal axisp and atjthe point 17for allowing: them to fold back when the the uprights 10. i F orrendering with the raising of the -hood, a sm'all link 14 hinged at bothends compelsthe arms'of the'hoop 6 to unfold byjthe'pulling of theleather on the part 16.

The front of the hood. covering the top .hoodsis lo'wered down. in Orderw y. I not extend beyond'the alignment of this operation automatic,"

of the doors operates according to the known systems and locks itself onthe uprights 7 of the front glass (Fig.4).

The whole of the hood is held rigid by two rule joints 12 hinged on thetop of the uprights and the hood support 20.

The front glass disappears in the back of the front seat as well as theuprights 7 which serve as vertical supports therefor and the upperspacing cross bar 9 on which is placed a sheet iron or wooden bridge 13completely hiding the passage of the glass when it is lowered down. Theuprights '7 are connected to the spacing bar 9 by two links 8 hinged atboth ends in order to raise the whole by pulling vertically on thespacing bar 9.

When the frame formed by the two up rights and the spacing bar has beenrendered rigid by locking it to the hood by a fastening device arrangedat the upper part of the uprights, the glass is fitted up by the systemscurrently employed.

The glasses of the doors move down in the hollow of the doors with theirmetal uprights (according to the known system) and the passages arecovered by piano hinges 15' e).

. For lowering the hood, the front of the latter is first disengagedfrom the front up rights, then one of the rule joints is closed (theother being combined with the first one by a common axis passing throughthe car along the back) and the whole folds back outside the carriagebody. For preventing the dust from entering in the members of the hood,the whole is enclosed in a cover as usual.

The combination of the three glasses for constituting a hinged windowcan be used when the hood is folded down. i

The uprights of the front glass disappear as-shown in Fig. 2.

What I claim as my invention and desire to secure by Letters Patent is:

1. In a hood for motor vehicle, a front hoop supporting the hood and theends of which are connected by pivoted links to two uprights aboutmidway of the height of these uprights, said uprights being pivoted attheir lower ends to the rear face of the 'back of the driver seat inorder to be capable of being brought down parallel to the said rearface, rear door uprights the lower ends of which rest on the elbow restsand are connected with extensions movable about an axls at right anglesto the side faces of the carriage body,means for displacing the ZLXIS Ofrotation of the said extension n to the rear hoop supporting the latter,so as to permit the spacing'of the said skeleton work at the same timeas; that of the rear door uprights.

2. In a hood for motor vehicles, a front hoop supporting the hood andcarried by two front door uprights pivoted at their lower end on therear face of the back of the driver seat so as to be capable of beingbrought down horizontally in a plane parallel to the said rear face,links connecting the ends of the front hoop to the middle of the frontdoor uprights for causing the hoop to come behind the back of the driverseat of which it is capable of forming the upper face ;-rcar dooruprights the upper ends of which are connected to the front hoop bybridges made of two jointed parts hooking on the ends of the front hoop,the two parts of the said bridges being capable of folding on each otherand on the rear door uprights. supporting levers secured at the lowerend of the rear door uprights and connected with an axis pivoting in asocket secured in the thickness of the carriage body, the said axisbeing slidable relatively to the socket by means of a finger guided in ahelical groove, the rear door uprights resting on the upper face of theelbow rests when the hood. is raised and coming outside the carriagebody and below the plane of the elbow rests when the hood is folded, arear bow for the hood hingedly connected to the rear ends of two lateraljoint-ed links whose other ends are pivoted to the rear door uprights.at about the central. portion of the height of these latter, and strutshaving their upper ends pivotally connected to the rear door uprightsand their lower ends pivoted on a common axis attached transversely atthe rear of the carriage body and intended to synchronize the movementof each of the lateral portions of the frame of the hood.

3. The combination with a vehicle tonneau having a drivers seat ofuprights movable toward and away from said seat and adapted in loweredposition to be concealed by said seat, a front hood bow operativelyc0nnected with said uprights and adapted to be lowered with the uprightsand to align with the rear portion of said seat, rear uprights havinglower extensions, axially movable pivot pinsarranged transversely to thelongitudinal axis of the tonneau and connected to said tonncau and saidextensions, an intermediate bow having its ends pivotally connected tosaid rear uprights in such manner as to permit the lower ends of saiduprights to move with said pivot pins toward and away from thelongitudinal axis of the tonneau, a rear bow, links connecting the rearbow to the rear uprights, pivots connecting said links to the rear bowand capable of permitting the forward ends of said links to movelaterally with the rear uprights, and hinged struts pivot-ally connectedto the rear uprights and to. the tonneam.

4. The combination with a vehicle tonneau havin a drivers seat, of u rihts connected to the tonneau and capable ofjmoveinent toward and awayfrom the latter, a t front bow associated with said uprights, rearuprights having extensions at their lower ends, axially movable pivotpins connectingsaid extensions to said tonneau, an intermediate bow,means pivotally connecting the H intermediate bow to the rear uprightsand the rear uprights, means pivotally connecting the rear ends of thejointed links to the rear bow and capable of permitting the forconnectedto said ward ends of said links to move toward and away from thelongitudinal axis'of the ton neau,' and hinged strut/shaving their endstonneau.

5. A combination as claiined in claim 4 in- 1 eluding links having theirrear ends pivotally connected to, the jointed links and their forwardends pivotally connected to 7 said uprights.

rear uprights and said Y 6. A- combination as claimed in claim 4,

including jointed bridge members connecting the upper ends of saidrear'uprights to the upper ends of the front uprights.v

In testimony whereof I have signed my 7 name to this specification. I vV l JACQUES BOTELLA;

